APRS tactical objects

With the recent winter weather we had some road closures. (This is old news from January, but I’m trying to clean out the draft folder)… While the 2m voice net was active helping collect and relay traffic reports on road conditions, I was trying to think of a way to use APRS to indicate where the roads were closed. Using UI-View I was able to create an object in one location, and thought I’d just move it around now and then – to sort of cover the extend of the closure (the elevated portions of I-565 and Memorial Parkway around central Huntsville). When using the http://aprs.fi web site to monitor APRS activity, the default view is to show recent tracks within the last hour – so my repositioning of the object had an interesting effect. Check this display . . . .

Strange object obstructing traffic ?

An interesting side-effect tho, for those watching on a mobile display, or anyone who clicked the object for the details, saw the relative speed as determined by differencing the previous position – which sometimes showed over a hundred mph…

Anyway, the object of this posting is to show the idea/concept and open the question – ‘Is there a better way ?‘ If you have an event that is not isolated to one specific coordinate, what is a good way to represent that on the APRS system. It is not quite like a severe weather watch box, but perhaps a narrow box could be created that indicates the area of road closure… The next day as the roads were still closed – I noticed that John – K4JCH had created some objects, each with a number, that indicated the extent of the closures. In other words, one at each end of the closure, or each on-ramp… Have you tried anything like this ?

Laptop webcam

http://nn4sa.wordpress.com/, our new website for our new NN4SA call sign is now active. All of our future updates will be posted there. The WA4NZD website that you are reading now, https://wa4nzd.wordpress.com/, will remain available. At some point in the near future, … Continue reading →

The Marshall Amateur Radio Club has changed its call sign. We are now NN4SA. We had been WA4NZD since 1980. We are gradually switching over our online presence. We have a draft WordPress website http://nn4sa.wordpress.com. It is active but not … Continue reading →

The results from the July, 2014 International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) High Frequency (HF) World Championship contest were published. WA4NZD placed first in Alabama, in the Single Operator, Mixed-mode (phone & CW), Low Power category. World-wide the club placed #2507 … Continue reading →

Patti Kurth and I (Gary WA2JQZ) joined Rob KB5EZ last Saturday afternoon to operate portable on Monte Sano for the North American QSO Party – Phone. We operated from a scenic overlook on the east side of the park. The weather … Continue reading →